The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1887-07-07

| ureu mhes 70 see him. The full power OF
the Gospel has net yet been touched. As
sportsmsn throws up his hand and
catches the ball flying through the air,
iuetso easily will this Gospel after awhile
catch this round world Tying from its
orbit and bring IL back to the heart 81
Christ Give It full swing, and II will
pardon every slu, heal every wound,
cure every trouble, emsncipate every
slave, and ransom every nation,
\ Ye Christian men and women who 20
out this afternoon TO do Christian work,
as you 60 into the Bundayuscho ols, and
the approaching stations, and the penE
tentiaries. and the ssylums, want you
70 feel that you bear in your hand q
| weapon, compared with which the light
ming has no speed, and avalanches have
no hefk and the thunderbolts of Heaven
have no power; it ia the arrow Of the
| omnipotent Gospel Take careful aim.
4 Pull the arrow clear back until the head
strikes the bow. Tnen lot It hy. And
| may the slain of the Lord be many
Again, IL you want to b. sxillful in splr-
| itual hunting you must hunt in unfre-
| quented and secluded places. Why does
| the hunter go three or four days IN the
Pennsylvania forests, or over Raquette
| lake into the wilds Of the A ilrondackst
1
shy, and one bang" of the gun clears
the forest From the California stage
| you see, as you go over the plains, here
and there a coyote trottlng along, almost
| within range OF the gun-sometimes quite
within range OF 1t. No one cares for that,
1t is worthless. The good game Is hidden
and secluded. Every hunter knows that.
So, many OF the souls that will BE- OF
most worth for Christ, and of most value
| to the church, are secluded. They do not
| come In your way. You will have TO 60
| where they are. Yonder they are down
| in that cellar, yonder they are up in tn at
garrett. Far away from the door Of any
church the gospel arrow has not been
pointed Ut them. The tract distributor
and the city missionary sometimes just
catch o glimpse Of them as a hunter
through the trees gets a momentsry
sight Of partridge or a roebuck.
The trouble is we are waiting for the
game to come to us. We are not good
hunters. We are standing in Schermer-
horn street, expecting that the timid
antelope will como up and eat out OF our
hand. We are expecting that the pr airie
fowl will light on our church steeple. 1t
Is not their habit. If the church should
wait 10, 000, 900 of years for the world to
come in and be saved, It will wait In vain.
The world will not como.
What the church wants now is to lift
their feet from damask ottamaps and put
them in the stirrups. We want pulpit
on wheels. The church wants not 40
much cushi ons as il wants saddle bags
and arrows. We have got to put aside
the gown and the xii gloves and put on
the hunting shirt. We have been fishing
so long in the brooks that run under the
shadow Of the church that the fish knows
us, and they avoid the h Dok aud escape as
soon as we como TO the bank, while yon-
der is Upper Saranar and Big Tupper's
Lake, where the fist swing Of the gospel
net would break it for the multitude Of
fishes
There Is outside work to be done. What
Is that see in the 6ackwoodS. II Is q
tent. The hunters have made Il. clearing
and c1mped out What do they care il
they have wet feet, or have nothing but
pine 'anch for pillow, or for the north
east storml If moose, in the darkness,
steps into the lake to drink they hear it
right away. II loon cry In the midnight
they hear II. SO in the serving of God
we have exposed work. We have got to
camp out and rough it. We are putting
all our care on the 70,00) people Of Brook
Ign, who, they say, come to church.
What are we doing for the 10000 that do
not come? Have they no souls, Are
they sinless that they need no pardonf
Are there no dead in their houses that
they need no comfort! Are they cut off
from God, to go into eternity-no wing 10
bear them, no welcome TO greet theml
1hear to-day surg1ng up from the lower
depths of Brooklyn groan that comes
through our Christian assemblages and
through our Christian churches; and 1t
blots out all this cene from nv eyes to-
day, as by the mist of great Niagara,
for the dash and the plunge of these
great torrents of life dropping down into
the fathomless and laundering abyss OF
suffering and woe. | sometimes think
that Just as God blotted out the Church
of Thyatira and Corinth and Lao1icea,
because of their slOth and stolidity, he
will blot out American ard f lglish
Christianity, and rIisa on the ruins a
stalwart, wide-awaKe missionary church,
that can take the meaning of that COM
mand
Go into all the world and preach the Gospel
10 every creature. He that believeth and Is
baptized shall be saved, and he that belieVeth
not shall be damned.
remark, further, if yon want to sue
coed in gospel hunting you must have
courage. If the hunter stand with tremb
ling hand or shoulder that finches with
fear, instead OF his taking the cat N )unt,
the catamount takes him. What would
have become of the Greenlander if, when
out hunting for the bear, he should stand
shivering with terror ON an icebergi
What would have become Of Du Chaillu
and Livingstone in the African thicket
with a faint heart and weak kneef
When a panther comes within twenty
PAGES of you, and it has its eve on you,
and it has squatted for the fearful spring:
STEADY, there"
Courage, o, We spiritual hunters! There
are great monsters of iniquity proving
all around about the community. Shall
we not, in the strength of God, go forth
and combat them! We not only need
more heart, but more backbone. What is
the Church of God that it shouli fear to
look in the eye any trAnsgressionl There
is the Bengal tiger of drunkenness that
prowls around, and instead of attacking
it, how many of US hide under the church
pew or the communion table! There is so
muah invested in it we are afraid to as
sault it-millions of dollars in barrels, in
watts, in spigots, in corkscrews, in gin
palaces with marble floors and ItaIan-top
tables and chased ice-coolers, and In the
tartaric acid, and the nux vomica, that
go to make up our 'pure" Amer
lean drinks. l looked with wondering
eyes on the heidelberg tun" 1t is the
great liquor vat of Germany, which is
said to hold eight hundred hogsheads of
wine, and only three tim IS in one hundred
years has it been filed. But as l stood
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